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"The Last Stand"


algy

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One for you local history buffs. this photo is titled "Warrington Battle of Old Bridge Street - The Last Stand", was there an organised protest against knocking the last few shops down at the top of Bridge Street, it certainly looks as if there is some kind of protest going on, I have never heard of this before and wondering if any one else had or even have access to local papers of the time.

 

TheBattleofBridgeStreet_zps7742093c.jpg

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To the right of Lee's in your photo, is that the gable end of Holy Trinity church ? If so was the street actually widened before demolition of  the old Bridge Street  by building afresh behind the old buildings ,then clearing the old before the road was finished. The buildings in the distance are also on a different line to Lee's shop.

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Yes that is the gable of Holy Trinity Church Davy and yes they did build behind a lot of the old buildings before pulling them down, the picture below was taken while they laid new tramlines in 1902/3 and illustrates it very well. The old property in this photo is the opposite end of the one in the first photo.

 

1902-3WideningBridgeStreetampthelayingof

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Fascinating stuff Algy & it attracted a crowd of onlookers then as well.

must have been a council job Dave, two men working (three if you include the one up the ladder) and a everyone else watching!. :wink:

 

Heres an earlier shot with the new buildings on the left being errected.

 

190722ndMayBridgeStreetdemolition_zps0fc

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So, did they just demolish the buildings on the Rylands Street/Friars Gate side of the street to widen the road.  And demolish the other side for modernization reasons?

Yes Demel  although the older ones from the Lion to the Higher Seven Stars and up to the new Royal oak remained, as did the properties from the other side of the Royal Oak down to and including the Packet House.

This photo is about 1912, they had completed the widening of Bridge street along with building shops on the west side of the street and were now demolishing property on the east side to build the new shops, the horse and cart are standing on the site of the "Old Crow Inn", the roof caught fire and burned the pub down.

 

1912DemolishingbuildingsontheeastsideofB

 

 

The "Old Crow Inn" yard. No.3 bridge street.

 

TheOldCrowtoprightNo3BridgeStreet_zpse5e

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Unfortunately born with no sense of direction.  The fire site looks like Market Gate in the background?  The 'Old Crow Inn' looks like the back yard of the the Auction Rooms in Bridge Street in the 50s/60s.

Demel, the map below should help you identiy the areas in the photos.

 

The area marked in red (1)  is where the demolition is taking place.

 

The area marked in blue (2) is the "Old Crow" yard.

 

1890_zps1a391d72.jpg

 

 

 

This photo taken in 1920 shows the buildings seen in the first photo and expains approximately where the passagway to the Old Crow was.

1920BridgeStfromMarketGate_zps681910f3.j

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I've had a look on the national newspaper database to see if there's any mention of the 'battle of Old Bridge St'. The trouble is the database doesn't include the Warrington Guardian but it does include the MEN and Liverpool Echo. Therefore any smaller stories that just feature in the Guardian alone aren't included but anything bigger that makes it into the MEN or the Echo is on the database. 

 

I haven't found anything about protests to save the buildings of Bridge St but there is mention of protests when Greenalls apply to transfer the licence from the Green Dragon on Bridge St to Brooklands on Lovely Lane, as the Green Dragon is about to be demolished. However these seem to be more from people not wanting a pub on Lovely Lane than about saving Bridge St. These objections take place between October 1902 and February 1903, the impression I get is that the Green Dragon building is holding up completion of the scheme so it at least gives a clue of the date if anyone wanted to spend a day scrolling through microfilm of the Guardian!

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I've just spotted the Green Dragon on Algy's map, does anyone have an opinion as to whether it's already been demolished in the photos or could it be still standing? That could give a further clue to the date. 

Tracey, the Green Dragon had most certainly gone along with all the other slums in that area by 1907 or even earlier as it doesn't appear on the map of that year.

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Yes, I saw a couple of articles from 1908 referring to the scheme being complete. I just wondered if it's possible to identify whether the Green Dragon is standing/not standing in the photo which would help to date the photo more accurately. That would make the task of finding articles in the Guardian easier (as you can only search by date, there's no index) however, that does depend on someone taking the time and trouble to go to the library!

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If you look at the second photo where they are laying tram lines in Bridge Street, that photo was definiteyl taken in 1902/3, and the property has timber horizontal supports connecting it with property on the right hand side of the street, plus the new build is well under way on the right side of the street whereas the " Battle of Bridge Street" photo has no timber supports, no tram lines and no new buildings, you can even see demolition taking place at the back of the remaining old property, so I would say the date we are looking for is 1901.

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This is great, but there never was a "battle" to save any of Warringtons historical buildings, unfortunately because "DEUS DAT INCREMENTUM" has always been the intention of Warrington (Borough and now Unitary) Council.

What a shame that almost all of Warringtons historical buildings have been either lost completely or almost destroyed.

Examples of recently lost buildings of great architectural value are the original Boteler Grammar School (destroyed)  Walton Hall (mostly destroyed) and Bewsey Old Hall (all of the old hall destroyed).

God Gives the Increase.

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